Color Me In Love (With Iruka-Sensei)
by Merley
Summary: Kakashi's clone has more game than he does. REUPLOAD


"Shadow clone jutsu!"

The silver-haired male says and in a poof, two of his carbon copies stand beside the real one. He reveals a long hiraishin kunai and holds it threateningly in front of him as a pointer, "You two hide in the trees till I call you. If you see another body, jump it."

The two copies body flicker away just as an almost invisible blur drops in front of the real one with a roundhouse kick, deflected by crossing his arms as a shield and hoisting himself back with enough impact. He throws the kunai one way, and lunges the other, hoping the momentum would buy him another second. It does.

He is very soon declared the winner, and with a heatless sigh, he waved off the 3 sparring partners he met in the mission room. Scarcely things who had been bragging about their recent collision with missing-ninja during one of their assignments, and how they could practically take any of them on at that point, even one Kakashi Hatake. And feeling particularly energized, especially after his current decommission after a rather bad mission, the copy-ninja who had just simply been passing by accepted their challenge.

It wasn't that they were particularly weak; their teaming was rather impressive but could do with improvements. And there were many holes in their attacks which gave Kakashi enough lag to strike if he wanted too. In the end, he came out victorious and had somehow satisfied the young chuunins with his encouraging comments. He didn't really understand why though. He still told them to, indirectly, try harder .

"Ah, that was quite refreshing." A sudden voice crept behind him while holding his hands behind his neck as he attempted to crack his kinked-out back. Lying in a tree would do that to people.

"Agreed," The real-Kakashi nodded, turning around and raising an eyebrow at the second clone, the only one in sight, "Where's the other one?" He didn't particularly feel or hear the other one poof away, so where could he be hiding?

A sudden shriek made them both pause, accompanied by, "Kakashii? What are you doing?!" The two suddenly very pale faces quickly scattered through the leaves to get close to an all-too-familiar voice.

Iruka Umino, everyone's favorite academy teacher, was currently lying on his back with his arms and legs curled forward in a defensive mode, trying to keep the body on top of him at bay. Surrounding them was what looked like an opened first aid kit along with a few dozen papers and a single clipboard.

What was he doing there, in the middle of no-where, with all of that?

"You smell so good, Iruka," mulled his snarling attacker. Both Kakashi's stood with their jaws slacked open as the last of their clone was busy nuzzling the academy teacher to even acknowledge their presence, "Makes me want to take a bite out of your-"

"That is very inappropriate of you!" Iruka shrieked in a horrified teacher voice, "Please get off!"

"But I still haven't tasted-"

"I am not something to eat!"

"I mean I wasn't going to eat you but if you insist-!"

"NO! I'll buy you ramen or something, just let me go!" Iruka threw his head forward and bonked him in the face, causing the clone-attacker to lean back in surprise. Even Kakashi was a little shocked (and impressed) by the direct sneak-attack, "I'm not here to amuse you Kakashi!"

"Then, why are you here?" Clone number-1 asked with a raised eyebrow. That's what real Kakashi wanted to know himself. Suddenly Iruka looked very nervous and was avoiding the clone's gaze.

"Maybe I just wanted to spar! I am a ninja too, after all!"

"Sure. Where's your sparring partner?"

"Um. Well he's a bit-"

"And why do you have a first aid kit and your marking sheets?" The clone stepped on his red pen and took it; the ink had spurted outside the broken pencil and probably wouldn't work again.

"I don't-"

"And why did I find you in a tree? Laughing to yourself? Iruka-sensei, are you okay?"

Iruka looked down, ashamed, "Okay, fine!" He closed his eyes and shouted over Kakashi's curious banter, "I was watching the match!"

"The match…?"

"Your match," Iruka replied, looking at him somberly, "With the fellow shinobis. I heard you all talking in the mission room and got curious," he looked down at his supplies on the ground, "... And worried."

"Worried?" Kakashi seemed even more confused.

"For them, of course!" He quickly tried to reprise, "But… you too. You only recently woke up after that and Tsunade explicitly stated you were not to do anything to disrupt your stitches. So when I heard you were fighting…."

All Kakashi's stared at the chuunin as he spoke nervously to the clone. Slowly the clone moved on his feet to collect the rest of his supplies, and Iruka snapped out of it enough to help him, "You know I'm not a child, right? To be watched and followed around like that? Especially by you."

Iruka scrunched up his face, but couldn't say anything. He was right, after all.

"But I appreciate the sentiment. Thanks, Iruka," Clone-Kakashi stood up and held a hand down to him. Iruka was shocked by it, quickly his expression changed into that shy, but polite smile of his, acknowledging the supporting hand to stand. But then suddenly Clone-Kakashi yanked him forward, their faces only inches apart until…

Kakashi let go of the jutsu, both clones disappearing. He watched as the young academy teacher fell on his face with a strong oof! . Slowly approaching him, he (re)gathered Iruka's things while Iruka moved to pick himself up and his thoughts.

"Yo, Iruka," Kakashi said awkwardly, standing up and fixing the papers more neater. Iruka looked at him in annoyance then back down, standing by himself to dust himself off, "I apologize for my clones intentions. I hope you know I had no control of his actions, so for him to approach you like that pretending to be me-"

"I knew it was a clone," Iruka replied in a bite that was more-or-less intended, pushing to seize his things from the jounin, "I said I was watching you after all."

Kakashi blinked rather hard. So he had, "My, my, so forward," he ignored the short glare that arose from the teacher, along with his flushed cheeks, "What say you and I get a bite to eat or something as an apology from me?" Iruka twitched at that and Kakashi immediately remembered the clones words, "Sorry."

"... You're paying," Iruka simply replied as he passed him, letting him carry some of his things, not that Kakashi really minded at all, not in the slightest.

He looked down at the first aid kit that was still scattered then quickly moved to follow him, "You know Iruka, you really came prepared. If I was really that injured…"

"I wasn't lying, Kakashi, when I said that first aid kit was not for you."

Kakashi blinked back at him curiously, then followed him with a chuckle that lasted all through the ramen shop.

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTE/Thank you to the person who told me about the formatting-issue! I'd never have realized!**


End file.
